A stent is a medical device introduced into a body lumen and is well known in the art. A stent may be delivered in an unexpanded state to a desired location in a bodily lumen and then expanded by an internal radial force. Stents, grafts, stent-grafts, vena cava filters, expandable frameworks, and similar implantable medical devices, collectively referred to hereinafter as stents, have included radially expandable endoprostheses, which have been used as intravascular implants capable of being implanted transluminally.
When implanting a stent in a patient's body lumen, an operator (e.g., a physician, etc.) may wish to verify that stent placement and/or orientation are appropriate to the particular stent application and implantation site. Some stents have been known to include a radiopaque marker so that the marker may be visible via, for example, fluoroscopy. Viewing a radiopaque marker via fluoroscopy may allow monitoring of the stent position during and following delivery and deployment.
There are drawbacks associated with radiopaque markers. In terms of manufacturing, some radiopaque markers have been difficult to secure to the stent. In terms of stent design, in which the trend is toward thinner stent walls, some radiopaque markers contribute an undesirable additional thickness.
Some stents are made from wires or filaments having ends that are loose. Loose ends of stent members (e.g., longitudinal members such as wires, filaments, etc.) have been known to cause trauma to the wall of the body lumen during and after delivery and deployment, resulting in increased patient discomfort and increased recovery times.
Some stents have been designed to reduce the traumatic effect of the wire/structure ends (e.g., loose ends) at the most distal and/or proximal end of the stent by enclosing the wire/structure ends with, for example, a drop of molten material. However, some of these stent designs do not result in an atraumatic end. An atraumatic end of a stent refers to a wire/structure end of a stent (e.g., a terminal end) which is smooth, free of sharp wire ends or other sharp projections or deformities which may cause trauma when implanted into a body lumen.
There is an ongoing need for improved visibility of stents during and after delivery and deployment and reduced stent profiles. There is also an ongoing need for improved methods of manufacturing stents that, for example, reduce the number of manufacturing steps, reduce the cost of manufacturing, and/or reduce the number of and/or cost of raw materials.
Without limiting the scope of the present disclosure, a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments is provided below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments and/or additional embodiments can be found in the detailed description.
All US patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.